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Launchy - Today's Free File
It seems like this series of application launchers just won't stop. In the comments for our post about the application launcher Colibri, Taylor mentions yet another launcher called, appropriately, Launchy. Being a sucker for this type of application, I couldn't wait to give it a try.
Launchy is a very slick application launcher. It sports a Vista-inspired theme complete with see-through glass edges, and is extremely small and fast. By default it only indexes your Start menu, however it can be manually configured to index any folder you like, and can even be told which file extensions to index.
If you've tried some of the other launchers we've recommended here but found them not quite your cup of tea, give Launchy a try.
Comments
8
Subscribe to commentsJason H.Mar 20th 2006 10:04AM
Another thing to note is how fast Launchy has grown. It's gone through two different versions in the span of a month and its appearance has grown SIGNIFICANTLY! It really is an excellent application. I'm a sucker for new apps so my Start Menu takes at least 5 seconds to come up full now and Launchy helps out alot.
Neil T.Mar 20th 2006 10:23AM
Presumably not to be confused with the Firefox extension of the same name - http://gemal.dk/mozilla/launchy.html .
TaylorMar 20th 2006 10:24AM
Wow, my name has been dropped on DownloadSquad. I feel famous. But yeah, Launchy is great and doesn't bog down your resources like some other keyboard launchers. I don't like the default hotkey (alt+space) as it is also the hotkey for the little window options (move, size, etc.) so I just change it to cntrl+space. And is doesn't have those nifty volume controls like Colibri, but there are other hotkey applications that handle volume adjustment. I love hotkeys, but I doubt I'll ever be able to use a machine completely without a mouse.
Mike MMar 20th 2006 1:13PM
It would be better if there was an option to tell Launchy not to index the start menu. Most programs when they put a folder into the start menu, they contain links to registration pages, uninstallers, readme files, etc. That adds a lot of information to the index that doesn't really need to be there. It also causes problems when these sorts of entries come up before the actual shortcut you're looking for. Back when I was using AppRocket, I made a folder of just shortcuts and set that to be the only thing to be indexed to avoid this. With a few more options, I think I'd start to use Launchy, I really would like a nice replacement for AppRocket (pain to have always glued to the top of the screen and on my machine it takes up roughly twice the system resources of Launchy).
TaylorMar 20th 2006 4:58PM
You're right about not being able to configure whether or not to index the start menu, I know some users would rather not. Maybe it will be added in an upcoming release.
Also, I think there's an option to hide approcket until the hotkey is pressed, but I couldn't tell you where it is, been a while since I used it.
Mgs0008b221Mar 20th 2006 5:06PM
... at least someone else listens to Cake. :)
Looks very slick, and runs quite fast.
Alex EzellMar 20th 2006 7:55PM
SlickRun is still the best.
anthnoyMar 20th 2006 7:58PM
and goats go to hell